3-D Movement Focus: Power Yoga (Strength and Flexibility)

In 1996, my amazingly cool aunt, Tracy, introduced me to Yoga. I was in high school and thought I knew it all. Well, stepping onto the yoga path, I came to realize that I still know very little over 10 years later, but it has been a great journey.

Yoga to me is an amazing movement practice. One of my first teachers and colleagues, Paula D. Atkinson, said that "Yoga is MAGIC" and I believe her. The great thing about yoga is that can be anything you want it to be. It can primarily be a physical, mental or spiritual practice OR all three. It just depends on the yogi or yogini.


In college, I tore my rotator cuff during a bodybuilding session. I had been overworking on bench press and my poor little myotendious connection got sick and tired of being overworked and just went on vacation. Needless to say, I had to lay off of weightlifting for a while. As I was walking around our student center, I noticed a flyer for a free yoga class. Well, I remembered my positive experiences in high school and decided to "rehab" myself that way. Well, that turned from one class per week to 6 classes per week at local yoga studio where I was able to meet my yoga mentor, Cathy Cox. Up to that point, I had been taking very alignment based, Iyengar Style classes but Cathy introduced me to Power Vinyasa Yoga. It was a vigorous 75-90 minute practice in a heated room that took me from floor to standing, twisting, balancing, pressing, stretching, etc. I was hooked after my first class. I loved the practice so much, I went for a training in Mexico apprenticed with a teacher and then started teaching shortly after and the rest is history.

WHAT IS YOGA?

I RARELY find someone these days who isn't aware of yoga. Most people know it, at least in the Washington DC area, but I'd even venture to say most places in the US. In the last 10 years, it has become increasingly popular from celebrity endorsements like Madonna and Sting. Yoga even made its way into the professional sports arena. Many athletes from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL have reported amazing results from doing yoga. A good book to check out is "Real Men do yoga" by John Capuoya who interviewd 21 pro athletes as well as explaining yoga in good detail.

Anyway, yoga is a 3,000+ year practice. In Sankskit, yoga means to "yoke" or "unite". The principle behind it is that when the mind/body/spirit are in-sync then the yogi will be well onto his/her path of enlightenment. There are many different froms of yoga. The one that we see the most in the US, is called Hatha Yoga which inlcudes the postures of "asana" to strengthen, stretch and cleanse the body. In the US, Hatha Yoga has split into so many differnt forms that there are too many to list in one post. The ones that folks may commonly see is:

• Iyengar Yoga
• Power Yoga
• Vinaya (flow) Yoga
• Power Vinyasa Yoga
•  Forrest Yoga
• Vini Yoga
• Ashtanga Yoga
• Bikram Yoga

The list literally goes on and on with different instructors coming up with their own methods, sequences, variations on poses, etc.

My piece of advice is find the style that works for you. One size definitely does not fit all.

MY POWER YOGA EXPERIENCE:

As I said before, I started with Iyengar yoga and I'm glad I did. That classes to be a slower paced class that focuses on ALIGNMENT. It is intense in that, depending on the teacher, that poses can be held for a VERY long time. I think I held one pose for 10 minutes and then did the othere side for another 10. I will tell you that I HATED it during but after I got out of the pose and after class, I felt amazing!!!!!!!!!

To each his own.

To me, Power yoga, when instructed correctly, can be an amazing movement practice. It definitely improves your flexibility but it also strengthens you tremendously as you progress. Generally, a person should start in a true beginners class if they are new to the practice. That way, you build a sold technical practice. One of the things I see most in my classes with folks who have been with me for a while is that they are very sloppy and lack the foundation to do the poses. Without this understanding, they are setting themselves up for possible injury and failure. Do yourself a favor: Swallow your pride and take a beginnner class. You'll be happy that you did.

For me, I appreciated the more athletic aspect to the practice. During our sun saluations, we would move from a tall standing position (mountain pose), to a forward bend to a jump back to plank pose. From there we would do a push-up (4 limb staff), hold it and then go into a spinal extension (upward facing dog) to a deep hip flexion for the hamstrings on our hands and feet (downward facing dog). This is done anywhere from 4-10 times as a warm-up. For many, you are definitely warmed up and feeling looser already. The rest of the class is really up to the teacher in terms of what they want to focus on. Many times, I'll choose a theme for my class. I like doing standing balances; however, I feel after a certain point, the class "has" the pose. What they need now is to be able to flow into and out of a balancing pose with strength, control and grace, regardless of the speed.

Again, every teacher has their own twist on yoga. Because I work with athletes, I tend to favor the more vigorous forms of yoga. Many enjoy the portion that requires strength but what I find is that when we get into the deep stretches, they REALLY love that. I seen bodies change over the course of months to leaner, more flexible and stronger bodies just doing yoga. When they returned to their weightlifting program, they found that not only did they not lose strength but they were STRONGER as well as felt better overall. As Paula says, "Yoga is magic."

Again, it depends on the person what they want to get out of the practice. Some just want to get away from their lives for 90 minutes. Some just want a workout. Some kind for the spiritual side with the yogic meditation. BUT it is not the end all and be all of movement practices. Unforunately, what we are seeing, at least in my area, is that  it is becoming very much a business and very commercial. We are seeing more and more teachers who are not qualified to be teaching. Yoga is a powerful indeed. It can help a person in so many ways but injuries can still occur. Talk to your teacher. Ask about their training. I firmly believe that ALL yoga teachers who are teaching the physical practice should have at least a basic understanding of anatomy and biomechanics. We are "physical therapists" not in the clinical sense but in the sense that yoga is movement practice that requires a certain chain reaction of the body and if they dont know that, teachers can lead students down a dangerous path. (okay..I had to get that off my chest).

So much can be learned and so many benefits exist in yoga. If you have ever had the urge to do a yoga class, I suggst that you take the plunge and do it.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave it in the COMMENTS and I'll do my best to answer it.

For anyone who lives in the Washington, DC area and would like to attend my classes, I teach at several locations and would be happy to get you into a class. Email me at yoga-pilates_will@hotmail.com and we'll go from there.

Will post a short yoga video soon now that my model is back from her trip to South America and can record now :)

Happy Friday!!!

Will